The Geographic Information System (GIS) team at Tarmac won the Esri UK Customer Success Award for Excellence in Analytical Insights, at the Esri UK Annual Conference earlier this month. The award recognised their innovative use of the ArcGIS application.
The ArcGIS app – a web-based mapping platform created by Esri – was originally used by Tarmac’s Land and Natural Resources department to make digital data, such as site locations and Land Registry information, available to share online for business use.
When Tarmac’s cement and lime geology team looked for easier ways to make complex mineral quality data accessible to quarry managers, they saw an opportunity to use ArcGIS.
Investigating the capabilities of the app, Richards Lauberts, senior data manager at Tarmac, developed ArcGIS to provide quarry managers with the ability to predict the chemistry of future quarry development, improving the quality of the cement raw materials extracted.
Further to this advancement, Sam Farnsworth, GIS technician at Tarmac, transformed the app to enable it to work on mobile devices. Then, whilst working with Stuart Rae, cement national geology manager at Tarmac, Sam updated the software to work in 3D. Making the app more accessible and providing quarry managers with a full 3D view of the chemistry and quality of the mineral reserves beneath their feet.
These developments mean ArcGIS can now be used to assist with complex and valuable decisions, making analytical data instantly accessible to the operational teams that need to use it every day. Thus, helping them to deliver better quality and use mineral reserves more sustainably.
Mark Grieve, quarry manager at Dunbar Cement Plant said: “When conducting cement plant production meetings, the quarry app has proven to be a very useful tool to our operations. It has provided insightful information on the predicted quality of our future raw materials and has helped us plan effectively for any changes in our limestone.”
Sam Farnsworth “Additional to the amazing news of winning this prestigious award, we are also experiencing the great impact the app is having across the business. The more the quarry managers use the app, the more requests we receive to develop new features and roll out similar apps on other sites! It is really exciting to see how we can expand further on what we’ve already achieved with this technology.”
Watch the video of Tarmac’s submission for the Esri UK Customer Success Award, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRXQrT62yvA
For more information on the ArcGIS, visit: https://www.esriuk.com/en-gb/what-is-gis/overview
Main photo – Sam Farnsworth (right) accepts the Customer Success Award for Excellence in Analytical Insights from Pete Wilkinson, managing director of Esri UK (left).
